Dan Meyer explains how he teaches math in this presentation. At one point he says that what he knows about teaching can be summed up in three words: Be less helpful. He says teachers can be helpful in all the wrong ways by spoon-feeding students. Sometimes this help can be subtle, such as a teacher’s face telegraphing the desired answer.
Some things are unimportant, so it’s important to get them right.
Mike Rowe, star of the Dirty Jobs television series, was classically educated. He reflects on his classical education and what he has learned from Dirty Jobs in this video. He begins his presentation by describing lamb castration in more detail that you might want to hear, but there is a point to his story.
Another quote from Digital Barbarism by Mark Halprin:
In my education it was assumed that one would … study Latin, in much the same way that today it is assumed that a student will … collect aluminum cans.
Related post: Independent thought
The following discussion of early American education comes from Mark Halprin’s book Digital Barbarism.
… the quality imparted in the study of classical languages, the Bible, and great works of literature (including the documents of the Founding) enlarged autonomy of thought. For, contrary to modern educational theories, discipline fosters not subservience but independence, as independence requires great strength to uphold.
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